The cultural influence funnel

Linking cultural influence to financial impact

Welcome to the Sociology of Business. In my last analysis, Rethinking ROI, I introduced cultural influence as the new consideration in business. Buy my book The Business of Aspiration and find me on Instagram, Twitter, and Threads. With one of the paid subscription options, join The Sociology of Business WhatsApp Community.

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When selecting their strategy of cultural influence, brands should first define their short- and long-term goals, their investment in achieving these goals, and their expected return on this investment. Then they should select the strategy of cultural influence that is best going to deliver their expected ROI.

A big part of the process of selecting the strategy of cultural influence is to assign KPIs to its three components: a) story, b) cultural products, and c) media amplification. The role of these KPIs is to:

• Define impact that the selected strategy of cultural influence has on revenue

• Define financial contributions from each of the cultural products and cultural amplification tactics

• Justify a given investment in particular cultural products and their media amplification

• Work towards predictive and/or retrospective scenarios that link brand actions with financial performance

• Manage creativity for profit and growth

The brand story is operationalized through cultural products and media amplification tactics. It is measured through success of the narrative rollout, selection of cultural products, media amplification mix, and audience segmentation strategy. Each of the cultural products are amplified with a specific audience, through the specific media tactics that range from mass to niche. Each has a goal and a KPI assigned as well as the contribution to the overall financial results, as described in the chart below.

The new cultural influence funnel looks as below: